‘Spectacular’ Botticelli portrait sold for record price at auction

Painting by the Italian renaissance artist, best-known for Primavera and The Birth of Venus, is regarded as one of his finest

Image showing Botticelli’s portrait Young Man Holding a Roundel, dated between 1470-1480 (AP)

A portrait by Sandro Botticelli has sold for a record $92m (£67m), believed to be the highest amount paid for a work by the Italian renaissance artist.

Young Man Holding a Roundel sold on Thursday 29 January at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.

The painting, regarded as one of Botticelli’s finest, is dated to around the 1470s or 1480s.

It shows a man in his late teenage years with long golden hair sitting and holding a disc – the roundel – which features a bearded saint with his right hand raised.

The roundel is an original 14th-Century artwork attributed to Sienese painter Bartolommeo Bulgarini.

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Sotheby's senior vice president Christopher Apostle described Young Man Holding a Roundel as a “masterpiece” ahead of the auction.

“This Botticelli is so much more spectacular in every way than anything we've seen coming to the market,” he told the AFP news agency.

“This image symbolises and exemplifies the Renaissance in Florence. We haven't seen anything like it in my lifetime.”

(REUTERS)

Young Man Holding a Roundel was handed down through several generations of an aristocratic family in Wales for about 200 years.

Art scholars were unaware of its existence until it first appeared on the market in the early 20th Century.

The portrait’s sale will likely reassure the art world that collectors are still willing to pay up for high-priced works during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ahead of the auction, the painting was displayed around the world to increase demand from collectors and potential bidders.

Charles Stewart, CEO of Sotheby’s, joked: “The young man in the painting has done more travel during Covid than probably anybody we know.”

The previous record for a Botticelli was set in 2013 when Madonna and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist sold for $10.4m (£7.6m).

Additional reporting by Associated Press.